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Another Branch in a Baseball Family

John Urick, a 28-year-old who plays first base for the Chico Outlaws, is the grandson of the Hall of Famer Whitey Herzog.Credit
Anne Chadwick Williams for The New York Times

CHICO, Calif. — At times the cloistered world of baseball feels small enough that it can be covered with cowhide, held together with red stitching and fit neatly in the palm of the hand.

For nearly 30 years, Whitey Herzog and Garry Templeton have been operating in this world, pursuing their work, quite content not to cross paths.

The last time they did, in any meaningful fashion, was in St. Louis in 1981. Templeton, then a young, tempestuous player who had confounded his coaches and teammates, made obscene gestures toward the home fans in late August and was yanked off the field by Herzog, then the Cardinals’ manager and general manager. Then Herzog fined and suspended Templeton. As soon as the season was over, Herzog set about trading him to San Diego.

The departure suited both men fine. Herzog acquired the light-hitting shortstop Ozzie Smith, who became the linchpin of three World Series teams and cemented his and Herzog’s Hall of Fame careers. Templeton became a respected presence and team captain in San Diego, helping the Padres to the 1984 World Series. But he never became a star.

“Really?” said Keith Hernandez, a first baseman with the Cardinals in the early 1980s. “Wow, what a small world.”

Nick Belmonte, a scouting consultant who helped find a job for Urick in the Golden Baseball League, laughed to himself when Urick was placed in Chico.

“I thought, well, this should be interesting,” Belmonte said.

If others can chuckle about the twists of fate, or the comeuppances of karma, the principals are not so easily amused.

Photo

In 1981, Whitey Herzog angrily removed Garry Templeton from a game after Templeton made obscene gestures to fans.Credit
Scott Dine/St. Louis Post-Dispatch

When he found out in May that Templeton would be his grandson’s manager, Herzog said, “I was kind of joking, ‘Don’t tell him you’re my grandson or he’ll send you home right away.’ ”

But in a moment, it was clear that Herzog, 78, might not have been entirely kidding. After a 10-minute telephone interview that revolved around questions about his grandson and a few about Templeton, Herzog said he had provided enough material for a magazine article, using an expletive to emphasize his point. Then he hung up.

Templeton, sitting recently behind the desk in his drab, windowless clubhouse office here, was more polite. But he was no more interested in the subject.

“No,” Templeton, 54, said when asked if he found it amusing to manage Herzog’s grandson. “Not really. I mean, I didn’t think about it.”

Templeton and Herzog have talked on occasion over the years, but never more than exchanging pleasantries. Herzog had not been to Chico to see Urick play, nor did Templeton congratulate Herzog on his induction to the Hall of Fame this summer.

They do not seem to harbor any ill will toward each other, but bygones do not appear to be bygones.

“Stuff just happened,” Templeton said, “but we’ve never spoken after that, we’ve never had a conversation.”

Asked if Herzog influenced him at all as a manager, Templeton said that what he learned about the job came from Dick Williams, one of his managers in San Diego, who asked Templeton to sit next to him in the dugout when he was given the day off.

“Me and Dick, we always had a dialogue,” Templeton said.

The man in the middle is not sure what to think. Urick was born 11 days after the Templeton-Smith trade, and over the years he heard about the problems Templeton had with Herzog. But Urick said his first thoughts about coming to Chico were of a teammate last year in New Jersey with the Sussex Skyhawks who had loved playing for Templeton.

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Garry Templeton, now the manager of the Outlaws, said he and Herzog have never really talked about that incident in 1981.Credit
Anne Chadwick Williams for The New York Times

“I know him and my grandpa had a rough patch there, a couple of altercations, but I never gave much thought to it,” said Urick, whose manager with Sussex was Hal Lanier, the Cardinals coach who separated Herzog and Templeton that day in 1981. “I had no expectations about it, no reason to think he’d treat me any differently than any of his other players.”

And Urick said Templeton had not singled him out.

Urick batted .307 with 10 home runs and 35 runs batted in in the regular season for Chico, which is playing the Calgary Vipers in the Golden League playoffs. He went to see Templeton after losing his starting job briefly during a midseason slump, a talk that involved Templeton’s reminding Urick that playing time was based on production.

Urick, who has Herzog’s short blond hair and toothy grin but not his brash personality, plans to follow his footsteps into coaching. This is Urick’s eighth season of professional baseball, and his second in an independent league, where teams are not affiliated with major league clubs. It is not unheard of for players to rise to the big leagues from here — Red Sox outfielder Daniel Nava and pitcher Robert Coello played in the Golden League — but for most it is just a dream.

Newly married, Urick said that he had come to terms with his standing in the game, and he acknowledged that it might be time to try something new. A few hours later, with a mighty left-handed swing, Urick cracked a home run far over the right-field wall — flipping his bat at home plate and admiring the arc of the ball. But the moment did not make him reconsider the path of his career.

“You can’t beat the feeling of hitting a ball a long way,” Urick said. “But there’s other parts of baseball that carry you, too, and I think I’m at that point.”

Herzog is pleased that Urick is thinking that way. Urick is a smooth fielder, but as a 6-foot-3, 215-pound first baseman he never hit with enough consistency or power to advance beyond Class A ball with the Yankees, who drafted him in the 22nd round out of Oklahoma State, or the Phillies.

“I guess I sounded like a bad grandpa, but I tried to convince him for a while to give it up,” Herzog said. “I was just trying to be honest. When he signed with the Phillies, he said, ‘I’ve really got a shot at Double A.’ I said, ‘John, you’ve got to put numbers up at Single A before you get to Double A.’ He’s 28, so there’s no sense in jacking around playing anymore. You don’t want to become a baseball bum.”

Herzog made it clear that if he was not in love with Urick as a ballplayer, he could not ask for a better grandson. And, he noted, he has eight.

In his assessment of Urick, at least, he appeared to be in agreement with Templeton.

“He comes to the ballpark every day, works hard, knows the game, and all he wants to do is win,” Templeton said of Urick. “I think he’s a real good young man.”

David Waldstein contributed reporting from Chicago.

A version of this article appears in print on September 12, 2010, on Page SP2 of the New York edition with the headline: Another Branch In a Baseball Family. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe